Its coming home

Billy Connely mural

Love Hairy Coo's

A significant day, pulling down the shell of
Glasgow School of Arts

Mackintosh at the Willow

Mackintosh at the Willow

Deep fired Mars Bar going in, 2 mins to cook

The lovely lady serving up

The first bite of deep fried mars bar

Farewell antics at Glasgow Airport

Its coming home, its coming home is the chant that is reverberating through the UK this morning. I don’t think they are focusing on my journey home but a little thing called a football match (World Cup semi-final England v’s Croatia) that is preoccupying the nation.

Down to reception for a wee chat, would we be able to check out later today? Aye, thats not a problem. Score, now we have the day to get things done and pack.

I am off down the street for some murals and a visit to the Gallery of Modern Art, Jane is up the cathedral and necropolis area. With a plan to meet outside Mackintosh at the Willows for lunch.

Its 10 mins before its time to meet Jane and I have legged uphill to Sauchiehall Street, if I just go a bit further, hmm, another roadblock, down a smelly lane, up an alley. Yes, today is the day the crane is in and they are knocking down the iconic Glasgow School of Arts building after the second devastating fire. A bit of history is going before my eyes, but the good news is they plan to remove and preserve the original top of the building to be used in the rebuild.

There are many theories running around Glasgow as to the source of the fire (coincidentally on the 150th anniversary of the architect, Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s birth). It will be very interesting to see what the investigators conclude.

Our lunch spot is Mackintosh on Willow, this is the original tea rooms rebuilt and they have only just opened. Lucky we could get in today to road test. Everything is delicious, a perfect last meal for the Outlander Odyssey with cake. 

Ok, well the truth is Jane thinks I am going back to pack and it is the end but little does she know I have one last thing on my Scotland list, a deep fried mars bar. They are supposed to have been invented in Scotland, specifically Glasgow but according to many locals, we meet it is a bit of a myth and one even thinks they originated in New Zealand. Ever since I saw the shop on Monday Jane has been vehemently opposed to me getting one as she thinks she will have to take me to a hospital with food poisoning if I eat one. So sans Jane in I go, aye love, 2 pounds 50, please. Done. Aye. Out from the fridge comes the Mars Bar, dip in batter and two minutes later I have the hot delicacy in my hand. What to do now? Ok, here it goes, cringe, bite, yep, batter and mars bar pretty much as expected. Revolting but doable. Better than Irn-Bru I say.

Now we are through security at Glasgow Airport and into shops. A loud cheer goes, up England has scored a goal! Are they English or Scottish cheering? I want to know most Scottish say they will not cheer for England, but they are starting to get caught up in the fun of it all. 

Bye Jane. Sob. HELLO Sydney I am on my way!

Checking out Chaz and gang

Descending into the Glasgow subway

The train, so cute and short

Entrance with big organ to
Kelingrove Museum and Art Gallery

According to the museum
Haggis is made from this animal

Christ of Saint John of the Cross

Anna Pavlova dancing

Charles Rennie Mackintosh mural 

We walked through Glasgow University to get
to the Mackintosh House

Back at the Willow Tea Rooms,
the lady must think we are her
best customers this week as she gave
us both a small gift today

Bagpipe boy busking,
he was raking in the cash

One thing I enjoy doing in a new city is trying out the transport options, Glasgow’s subway runs in a circle around the city with 15 stations and is the third oldest in the world after London and Budapest. It only takes moments to get a ticket and be on the correct platform. Lets stand-in the middle to figure out which way the train will come from. Rumble, rumble, the train is tiny and only aobut 50 metres long, quaint would be my description. But the cutest thing is the driver who has to stick his head out the window to check all is clear and leave the station. 

An interesting bit of Glaswegian culture is the subcrawl, just like a pub crawl you get off at each station and have a drink at the closest pub. We have another type of venue in mind, in no time we are here, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. Now we are running up the steps, nothing gets us more excited than a new gallery. Deep breath, enter, wow, thats an impressive start, another deep breath lets practice JOMO not FOMO and on we go.

Some highlights include:

• Glasgow stories putting together all the bits we learnt yesterday
• using the Scottish wildlife displays to identify some of the birds I have seen
• seeing some fascinating examples of Scottish art including Lord Mungo Murray. a tartan-clad portrait and The Scotsman, a 1980’s take on myth v’s reality on being Scottish
• swooning at all the great art including Christ of Saint John of the Cross by Dali and Anna Pavlova dancing

The most interesting story was about the La Faruk Madonna an altarpiece painted by an Italian artist for a mud chapel in a POW camp in WW2. When the camp was disbanded the pairings were given to the British commander with gratitude for his fair and just treatment of the prisoners.

Overall summary, a trip to Glasgow is worth it for this museum alone!

Moving onto the Mackintosh house, the security guard immediately picks the Aussie accent and shares the story that his grandfather was an ANZAC at Gallipoli, who met his grandmother at a tea dance at the Ritz in London, After the war, he came back to Australia and qualified as a doctor then back to London to marry. His son ended up in Scotland and today we met the grandson, I like these links all over the world.

Glasgow’s favourite son is definitely Charles Rennie Mackintosh. He is an architect and designer that worked in s style we both really like, Art Nouveau. This style its very decorative and includes curved lines of plants and flowers. I think it is a bit unfair that Chaz gets all the attention as his wife, Margaret, her sister, Frances and many others did amazing work.

We visit lots of his work including Glasgow School of Art (unfortunately a burnt out shell about to be demolished) the Mackintosh house is a full-sized replica of Charles and Margaret's house, with the original furniture. Amazing that someone had the hindsight in the 60’s to pack up the contents and store them when the original building was demolished.

Back to the Willow Tea Rooms I will try Scottish Blend tea today, thanks hmm, and maybe I could fit in a Strawberry Tart. A fitting way to end another great day.

Dear Green Place

Fresh as a daisy at the start of the day
at Willow Tea Rooms

Willow Tea Rooms

Having fun at Willow Tea Rooms

Wellington Statue that always has at
least one traffic cone on the top.
This has been going on for years and the council
has finally given up removing the cone
(saving 10k per year)

George Square

St Mumro my fav piece

Rocco the friendly coffee guy
in a repurposed Tardis

A good example of the Glasgow Charm
saying remember to look up not down.

Marble staircase in the City Chambers (it was closed
when we got here but the nice security guard let us in
for a quick look)

Happy tourists at the end of a long sunny day
in Glasgow

This mural is called Wind Power,
happy to report Scotland is
very into renewable energy with
lots of wind farms

Back into civilisation and the BBC morning news is on the TV, England is still in the grips of the weirdest summer ever, 30+ degrees everyday and world cup fever is intense with England making the semi-finals. All the talk is about how much the flights to Russia cost. It seems like half the country is going to the match on Wednesday night. Scotland, of course, wants to ignore anything English, but its even creeping in here.

Every day this trip Jane has been wanting Scottish Porridge for breakfast so today is the day. Willow Tea Rooms is the chosen venue, its a bit of an institution in Glasgow. Modelled after the original tea rooms designed by Mrs Cranston and Charles Rennie Mackintosh (famous architect / designer we will be focussing on more tomorrow). Everything is just perfect I could get used to the lifestyle.

Next up we are on a walking tour (highly recommended) some highlights included learning about:

• the fascinating legend of St Mungo, his miracles and how they are interpreted on Glasgow's coat of arms
• how the Tobacco Lords from America used Glasgow as a base in the UK and built homes in the 1700’s so big they are now used as museums
• a long tradition of shipbuilding, with 1/5 of the world's ships being made here during the early 1900s

But of course for me, I just go into overload with any street art and my favourite piece so far is St. Mungo (of course having two birds helps). The artist is Smug, who is an Australian who lives in Glasgow.

Every time we see a new statue Jean our guide tells us who it is, explains they had nothing to do with Glasgow, however, it was the first statue to Walter Scott etc in the world. All I can assume is those tobacco lords had a lot of money and really wanted to put Glasgow on the map.

Dr Who is another big feature here, with real police boxes to keep me snapping, one is Rocco’s coffee shop (who poses for photos) and the other with a bearded hippy who sells hemp oil.

Time to move on and rest our feet with a ride on the hop on hop off bus in this glorious sunshine. Seats up the top, ready, go, oh-oh the commentator is Glaswegian, the accent in Glasgow is super strong to my ears and I am really struggling to understand what any of the locals say.

There is only a splattering of tourists here in Glasgow and most of the locals are really suffering from the heat, last week they had 6 days of over 30-degree temperatures (think Sydney with 6 days of 40+ temperatures) plus they have no or little air-conditioning.

One last tourist spot, The Lighthouse an old newspaper building that has been turned into a design centre. There is a problem with the lifts and we meet the lift mechanic who lived in Canberra for 2 years and loves Australia, especially Manly Beach. His other claim to fame is when this building opened he had to take the Queen up to top floor viewing platform and now he escorts us. Glasgow is really rolling out the red carpet for us.

Overall first day impressions of Glasgow, its a mix of old buildings in local red sandstone, some restored, some falling down and a few modern buildings. The street art murals and flowers really add visual spice to the city.  Gentrification is underway, seems like it started with the Commonwealth Games in 2014. I agree with the marketing, people make Glasgow, they are very friendly and down to earth (when you can understand what they are saying).

The sunshine goes on and on, it's so bright and still light at 10pm a tourist could go on forever, but now its time to sleep.

NB. The title for this post 'Dear Green Place' is Gaelic for Glasgow.

007 calling in we made it to Glasgow

Finally a windy blown, cloudy landscape

Buachaille Etive Mòr

The STAG

Lake Etive

Dalness House

007 re-enactment

Black Roof cottage

A lovely old hotel we had a break at,
lots of dogs and climbers here

A car drop off point reviewing the map
of the miles we did

Bags this bed 

Champagne Central at Grand Central Hotel

Time to pack our bags into the car and head onwards. Out to the car and what’s this a drop of moisture on my nose? Will we get rain today? We are off and racing and back to the biggest roundabout in Fort William. Jane wants to go back to Inverness for the third time but we push on and take the road to Glasgow. Of course, the tour guide may have a few side trips planned before we get to Glasgow.

Windwipers on, this time for actual rain (as opposed to all the times I turn them on thinking they are flickers) now this is a change. But it does not last, there is lots of cloud and wind, I even have to add an extra layer in Glencoe as the wind is chilly. The road really opens up we are surrounded by massive green mountains and low rolling clouds, finally, on our last day in the countryside, Scotland delivers as per the brochure.

Our next mission is 11 miles on, back onto a one lane road we go. We have a photo from the James Bond's movie Skyfall that just has to be re-enacted. Armed with a bevvy of information from the web we start our mission, confident we know how to tackle one lane roads. There are campers, walkers and bike riders everywhere. This really is the adventure capital, people jut pop out from everywhere. We think we know what we are doing, but have already gone 5 miles and its not looking positive.  Up and down we go, Little Lily is struggling with all the luggage in the back. People coming the other way, campers parked in passing bays, reversing, swearing, trying to figure it all out. Over a bridge, round a corner and here is a big Stag peacefully eating in a field, amazing! So far on the trip we have seen 4 does (females) but this is our first full blown male.

Time to calm down and get back to the first mission, onwards we go pass Dalness Estate, rumoured to be Ian Flemings (author of James Bond novels) family holiday house. But I don’t believe the rumours. Now we are getting lots of trees this is not right for the photo, eventually we make it to the sea and meet a nice lady from Holland but our mission is a fail. Jane needs to go to Specsavers, back we go to try again, more cars to pass and more STAGS. Four of them now, in nearly the same spot, two feeding and two sitting down watching the world go by. Maybe they are just happy that its not a blistering hot day today and they can go about their business as usual.

Onwards we go, another 5 point (instead of 3) turn and and finally we find a location we are happy with and snap away. Mission accomplished. 24 extra miles on one lane but worth it for the views alone. Buachaille Etive Mòr definitely is my favourite munro in Scotland.

But now lets get moving to Glasgow, fast forward another 60 miles and we have dropped off the car. That's enough driving for me for this holiday. At check in we get vouchers for a complimentary champagne in the bar, yes please. Now its time for a rest as tomorrow we have a new city to explore.

Rain tally for day: one small drop on nose, 5 mins on windscreen and mist (a type of rain I think) during 007 photo shoot.

HP pilgrimage no. 99

At the start of the World Cup mountain bike track
in Fort William

Start of the day

This is one big mountain

Shot from the gondola of riders on the track

Glenfinnan Viaduct

The walk up to Glenfinnan Viaduct
to pick our spot

Afternoon train, everyone waves
and cheers 

Morning train returning,
the driver did a musical toot
all the way across the bridge

This girl was dressed the best

Fun at the Neptune's Staircase Fort William

Fort William is an outdoor action town, with mountain biking, climbing, running and all kinds of outdoor activities. Ben Nevis, the tallest mountain in the UK looms large over the town from every angle. So the first thing on the agenda for today (rescheduled from yesterday) is to conquer the mountain and get to the top.

Well actually thats not true we are doing the 8-hour trek to the top, we are taking the tourist version and going up in the gondola on the mountain next to it at Nevis Range Mountain Park. This is where a Mountain Bike World Cup race takes place every year and I have watched many videos on youtube of the elite (and crazy) bikers racing down the mountain. We are here and ready to go and one of the first ones up to the top. Checking out all the trails, the monster Christmas trees and amazing views.

Tada we are at the top, is it there? Not sure. Hmm, yes, there it is the start hut! Time for a quick test out down that ramp :) Done with style and panache I then return the bike and go back to being a tourist. Off to the veranda for more photos and a cuppa then back down we go. That was the best fun but we are not dressed in Harry Potter shirts by coincidence.

Its time to head down the road to the famous Glenfinnan Viaduct, built for a train line at the turn of the 19th century, but immortalised forever in Harry Potter movies as the bridge the train goes over on the way to Hogwarts. This particular event has to be timed to perfection. So first its the Glenfinnan Memorial, where Bonnie Prince Charles raised the flag and gathered the clans for the first time. We have seen every other historical location in this piece of history that has shaped the psyche of every Scottish person (well at least the people that write the tourist information). Tick.

So with vague instructions and other HP nutters, we start the trek to the viaduct. Its a pleasant walk then a scramble up a hill. Now I have to run around and decide which place is the absolute best to position ourselves and come back to where Jane has claimed a rock. Happy we have enough height and can't be blocked by other Harry Potter tragics.

The hill fills up more and more as the appointed minute approaches. I hear a rumble in the distance and toot, toot. Its here, video on, snap away everyone waves from the train and the hill and its done. That was perfect. Now to settle in for a few more minutes and then toot toot the morning train appears going back to Fort William. This is the steam train and the train driver makes a great show of tooting all the way across the bridge. Everyone is happy.

Walking back down the hill with the crowd all you can hear is everyone replaying the video on their phones and the toots of the train. It is a very funny moment. I started out as someone who enjoyed the books and movies, now I am definitely reaching tragic status. All the HP fans seem to like a bit of magic and happiness.